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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28422984">gaze</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buttterr/pseuds/Buttterr'>Buttterr</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>13 going on 30 vibes, F/M, Potions Accident, Time Travel, dramione - Freeform, no beta we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:55:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28422984</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buttterr/pseuds/Buttterr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She pinched herself.</p><p>It hurt.</p><p>She wasn’t dreaming.<br/>.<br/>.<br/>.<br/>Hermione and Draco wake up in an unfamiliar world, and they only have each other</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson/Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarrysPott/gifts">HarrysPott</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Honestly, Ronald, I wish you would give me more time to help you. You would achieve better grades if you didn’t procrastinate.”</p><p>Ron groaned. “’Mione, we argue over this every time. Can’t you just read over it?”</p><p>“Yes. But I can’t tell you already you would get a ‘T’ on this essay.”</p><p>He snapped up from his position on the chair, rustling the snoozing Harry beside him, who grumbled an annoyed “watch it.” Before shifting his position again.</p><p>“What’d’ya mean?” he grabbed the parchment from her hands, eyes scanning it. “This is my best work.”</p><p>“That may be so, but it’s about a foot short of half the length it is supposed to be.” Ron groaned loudly. “it truly is a good start, though. Come one, it’s still a couple of hours to curfew. Let’s go to the library, we can lengthen it for class tomorrow.”</p><p>Ron grudgingly followed her to the library, grumbling the whole time about how his hard work still wasn’t good enough or how he just wished that he could be done with school.</p><p>Hermione, meanwhile, was brainstorming about what he could add, what books she could find, how to improve his language, and anything and everything else. Both of them failed to notice the person that seemed to have followed them down the darkening corridor.</p><p>“’Mione, I really appreciate your help on this…” Ron uncharacteristically thanked his girlfriend.</p><p>She threw him a bright smile at him over her shoulder. The two continued down the hall and eventually made it to the library. Madam Pince sent them suspicious looks as they got settled. Hermione ordered Ron to begin rewriting the work with her edits while she began to locate the books she had decided they would need to flesh out the essay.</p><p>She was browsing through the mythical creature’s section when she was startled by the presence beside her. She immediately yielded her wand upon noticing that it was Blaise Zabini who had startled her.</p><p>He immediately put his hands out, wand left untouched and in view in it’s holster. “Sorry to startle you, Granger. I come in peace.”</p><p>“I find that hard to believe.” She snapped. She had always been wary of the Slytherins, but it had only increased in the previous years. Their sixth year had been relatively calm and normal (at least as normal as their lives in Hogwarts could go) so far. There had not been any unexpected, malicious explosions or attacks, the most startling part had been the onslaught of fans harry had been facing. Still, she was cautious.</p><p>“I know.” Blaise responded. “look, I know you’re not going to believe me, so I brought this.: He held up a potion vial, knowing that she would recognize its contents as veriteserum. “I wanted to talk to you. Weasley is out there asleep, so you need not worry about the time.”</p><p>She eyed her year mate before she lowered her wand. “I’m not going to make you take that terrible stuff. But if I think you’re lying I may change my mind. What do you want?”</p><p>He nodded and began. “Look, we all know that Potter has been following Draco around, and we know that he suspects the Draco has taken the mark. But I’m here because Potter is right.” Hermione let out a small gasp. “but he regrets it. It was basically forced to take it through…. nefarious means and some undesirable home circumstances. Basically, I want to ask for help. I know that Potter and Weasley are hotheaded, so you seemed like the most logical person to ask.”</p><p>She looked over him. He looked concerned, but not about lying. She thought that he looked more concerned with the well being of his friend. “I know I don’t want to join….that side. But I don’t know what to do. And I don’t know how to get Draco out.” He continued. “So please. Help me.” His voice took on a desperate tone, and Hermione was touched.</p><p>She had never thought that <em>any </em>Slytherin, let alone Draco Malfoy’s best friend would come to her, or anyone for that matter, for help in the war. But he seemed genuinely concerned and scared. But she didn’t know how to help him.</p><p>“I don’t know what you expect me to do.” She said softly.</p><p>“I don’t know either, but I needed to out it out there. Perhaps you could ask Dumbledore or something. Maybe being forced to work with Draco….I don’t know. I just need help.”</p><p>She nodded her head in understanding. “Do you want me to keep this to myself?”</p><p>“I mean, I feel it would get messy, should Weasley or Potter find out. Or both.”</p><p>“Yes, that is true.”</p><p>“So I suppose not. Unless you tell Dumbledore or someone. But please warn me before. Send me an owl or something?”</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>“Thank you.” He sent her a soft smile, something she had never seen on his face before, before he took his leave. “I trust you, Granger.”</p><p>She stood quietly for a moment, before checking the time with a quick tempus charm. “Oh no!” They only had just over an hour to finish Ron’s essay. She grabbed several books before rushing back and slamming them on the table next to his sleeping face, startling him awake.</p><p>The two began working together quickly and quietly, though what Blaise had asked of her weighed heavily on her mind, following her to her dreams that night.</p><p>The next morning their first class was mixed potions with Slytherin. Hermione was more quiet than usual, but not enough to alert the boys, who were groaning loudly about it.</p><p>“I don’t know why you’re complaining <em>Harry. </em>You have <em>The Prince </em>to help you through class.”</p><p>Harry narrowed his eyes at his friend. “You could have the Prince’s help too, if you wanted, <em>Hermione.” </em>He responded.</p><p>The two, who were usually quite close, had been at each other’s throats more and more often lately, since Harry’s reliance on the suspicious book. It also didn’t help that he was achieving better marks than her in potions, either.</p><p>“Oh you two, would you drop it?” Ron moaned. “Lets just go to the hell scape, yeah?” And he led the two of them with hands on their shoulder, ignoring the bickering from his best friend and his girlfriend.</p><p>The three entered the class, and Ron took a seat, followed closely by harry. Usually, the three would pair together, but Hermione was feeling a bit petty, so she turned her nose at Harry and chose the seat behind him. What she didn’t notice, however, was the bag that had already been placed at the seat she had thought was empty. It wasn’t until class had already started that she noticed her partner for today was none other than Draco Malfoy. He said nothing to her, but did send her an annoyed look, which she tried to return. She was a bit intimidated. Everything that Blaise had said to her in their brief meeting was replaying in her head. Draco’s reluctance to take the mark. The mark. Wanting help. Blaise. Draco. The mark. The mark. She caught herself trying to sneak a glance at his left arm, but it was covered with a skintight, long sleeve shirt and his leather potions gloves.</p><p>“You okay, ‘Mione?” harry asked, swallowing his pride momentarily to check on his friend. Draco let out an annoyed huff, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like “Stupid Potter” under his breath.</p><p>“I’m fine.” She responded shortly, as Professor Slughorn was beginning class.</p><p>“Good morning! Today, we will be working in pairs to brew the ageing potion! Please check page 546 for the ingredient list, and pages 547 to 548 for the instructions. It is not a terribly hard potion, but it is time consuming, and may turn up on your NEWTS.”</p><p>With a clap. The class began to work. “I’ll get the ingredients.” Hermione said quietly, to which Draco nodded shortly, preparing the fire wordlessly.</p><p>When she returned with everything, the two began to work in silence, slicing the bananas and crushing the newt spleens. She had counted several times when she was gathering the ingredients, but she failed to notice that one of the newt spleens was larger than the others, which began to interfere with the PH balance of the potion, since it’s weight was slightly heavier than the others.</p><p>“What did you do, Granger?” Draco asked angrily.</p><p>“Nothing! I grabbed the correct amount. Did you weigh them?”</p><p>“Of course, I did!” he snapped back, stirring the potion counterclockwise to try and correct the mistake.</p><p>Professor Slughorn made his way to the pair after noticing the purple smoke and the frantic voices. “Now now, calm down. This is okay, we can just banish the potion and start over. It is not a problem.” He grabbed his wand to begin the banishment, but when he reached down to his wand, he bumped into Ron’s shoulder, causing the young male to turn around abruptly, arms flailing, and toad eyeballs on his knife. One of them was flung into the air and everyone watched in baited silence as the eyeball plopped into the brew. Nothing happened. “See! Everything is okay! Now relax and go gather the other ingredients Miss-.” Slughorn was cut off and thrown back when the potion immediately burst into a purple plume of smoke, causing everyone around to jump away. Hermione and Draco, however, were confined behind their chairs and were not able to make it away in time.</p><p>The smoke let off a strong smell of Sulphur, and when Slughorn was back on his feet he rushed to the two students and checked on them. Hermione could hear him say, “They are fine, but they should be brought to the Hospital wings to check for and broken bones. That was an extremely strong blast.”</p><p>                                                            …</p><p>Needless to say, Hermione was quite startled when she woke up in a an extremely unfamiliar but comfortable bed rather than the small ones of the hospital wing.</p><p>She stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, noting her surroundings. She looked to her left and spotted her wand and what looked like a pair of glasses. She grabbed her wand before crawling out of bed and creeping slowly around the room. She stopped short when she noticed a number of picture frames that contained her face. Some were familiar pictures of her and Harry, Ron, some of Neville, some of Ginny. However, the more she looked; she also noticed an older looking Harry wearing a grey suit next to an older Blaise in a matching suit. The two wore smiles and were laughing at each other, before looking at the camera. Next to that was one of Ron in the same grey suit accompanied by Pansy Parkinson in a soft red dress. She watched as the two twirled around each other in a dance.</p><p>Fear began to bubble in her chest. She was in an unfamiliar place, watching familiar, older faces, in pictures in situations that made no sense. She cautiously looked at the next picture.</p><p>Her eyes were glued to a picture of her wearing a bright smile, adorning an elegant white dress, holding a glorious bouquet of roses. Her mother stood beside her and her father, who was standing next to a Narcissa Malfoy, who was smiling softly at the camera.</p><p>What caught her eye the most, what took her entire world and flipped it upside down, inside out, what made the fear in her chest boil over in a complete mess, was the way Draco Malfoy was looking at her. He was wearing a grey suit himself, and he was holding her hand that did not hold the bouquet and gazed at her with a look of pure adoration on his face. Hermione watched on loop as this unfamiliar, older, picture version of herself laughed and turned her head to look at him before sending him a bright smile and kissing his cheek.</p><p>She pinched herself.</p><p>It hurt.</p><p>She wasn’t dreaming.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Draco</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>Of course, </em>Draco thought to himself as the cauldron exploded before him. His eyes shut on instinct and he felt himself hit the back of the chair before falling into darkness.</p><p>He was rather shocked when he woke to a bright and unfamiliar office and his mother's voice rather than the ambient sounds of the hospital wing. Had the accident been that bad? No, certainly not.</p><p>Also, his mother was talking about children's books.</p><p>“What do you think, Draco?” She asked. He turned his head to look at her. Her back was turned, admiring a vase of daffodils on a hutch near the door. Maybe this was a professor's office? It didn’t look familiar. Maybe it was the Gryffindor heads office. Why was his mother here? Maybe she came to see him, and he just doesn’t remember. He doesn’t remember anything beyond falling back into his chair.</p><p>“I'm sorry, Mother, say again?”</p><p>She gave a world-weary sigh before turning to face him. He was taken aback. She looked like she had aged 10 years since he’d seen her three months previous. “I said, Draco, that I found some adorable children's books for Mira and I was wondering if you thought she would like them. Why do you not listen to me?”</p><p>He raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know who Mira was, perhaps one of his mother’s friends' children, but he just nodded and said, “That sounds lovely, Mother.” He had a headache and he wanted to return to his dorm to rest. And figure out how many hours he had lost after that stupid potion's incident.</p><p>“Ah, well, in any case I already purchased them for her with or without your blessing. I must be off! I will see you later!” She said, patting his shoulder and leaving.</p><p>“Bye, Mother.”</p><p>He was standing behind the desk, uncomfortable in the unfamiliar office, as he eyed the couch on the other side, choosing instead to just plop into the fluffy chair. He assumed whatever professor it belonged to would reprimand him and it would be over with. He investigated the walls, noting the lack of pictures and the massive bookshelf on the other side before his eye finally began to move to the desk. He felt like snooping. He paused. He rubbed his eyes. He picked up the still photo. He closed his eyes for a few moments, sure that he was seeing things, but when he opened them again, he saw the same photo. It featured himself in formal wizarding robes and a slight smile on his face. It was unfamiliar, older. There were slight wrinkles on his forehead, and what looked like smile lines around his eyes. He reached up an touched his brow, finding the indents into his skin.</p><p>The most shocking part, the one that he was choosing to ignore, was Granger. Granger, the insufferable Gryffindor who had once punched him in the face. Granger, the girl who had bested him in his studies for five and a half years. Granger, the muggle-born girl who had started to change his mind. Granger, the girl who he was partnered with however many hours ago during the exploding cauldron incident, was standing beside this aged version of himself wearing formal wizarding robes, the type of formal wizarding robes one only saw at a wedding. They had matching colors on.</p><p>“What the fuck.” he whispered.</p><p>He stood there for who knows how long before the door to this office, this office that must be his older self's, burst open and slammed against the wall.</p><p>“Draco!” The voice had a familiar timbre to it. The voice belonged to someone that he had hated and envied for as long as he can remember, and the owner of that voice was currently standing in this office with an annoyed look on his face. “I ran into your mother in the hallway <em>again. </em>And she didn’t let me go for five minutes!” Harry Potter whined.</p><p>Draco didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer.</p><p><em>What is happening? </em>He thought to himself. <em>It was be a nightmare. I must be suffering from a concussion from the explosion. I’m hallucinating. This is a hallucination, a fever dream something that will be solved by my eyes opening right now and my brain waking up. I’ll wake up in the hospital wing, and I'll be 16 again. </em>He shut his eyes rather forcefully, took ten deep breaths before he snapped his eyes open again.</p><p>The aged Harry Potter was still standing there in the ministry uniform auror robes with a rather dumb looking expression on his face.</p><p>“You look stupid, Potter.” he said.</p><p>Potter blinked, his face contorting from confusion to one of shock before he approached Draco, who took a step back. “You okay?” he asked.</p><p>“Get away from me.”</p><p>“Okay, you’re not okay. What’s wrong?”</p><p>Draco stared at him with a wild look, thinking. <em>I’m clearly in the Ministry, I can’t make an attack. Something must have happened if I'm not dreaming. If this is a dream, then I'll wake up if something happens. If this isn’t a dream, then I could do permanent damage to myself or to my family. </em>The photo was still clutched in his hands.</p><p>“When am I?” He finally was able to spit out.</p><p>Potter's eyes widened before he said, “I’ll go get Kingsley.”</p><p>“No. You help me.” he demanded.</p><p>Potter seemed to think for a minute. “If I tell you, will you let me verify that you are Draco Malfoy?” Draco nodded stiffly. “It’s the year 2011.”</p><p>Draco choked on an inhale. <em>2011? </em>He slowly turned the photo frame around and waved it at Potter. “And this?”</p><p>“2003.”</p><p>“I’m going to sit down, Potter. You better not curse me. I don’t know where my wand is, so you’d be dishonorable if you attacked me.”</p><p>“I won’t. I swear.” Potter responded.</p><p>Draco didn’t trust him, not really, but he had no choice but to sit down in the chair behind him, anyway.</p><p>Potter paused for a moment; his hands limply held by his sides. “What was out first meeting?”</p><p><em>Why does that matter?</em> Draco thought, before he realized it was a verification question. He thought for a moment before he spit out, “Madam Malkin’s.” Potter seemed satisfied with this answer and took a seat in the chair across from the large desk and folded his hand on his lap.</p><p>“What’s the last thing you remember?”</p><p>“Potions class in 6<sup>th</sup> year. There was an accident that resulted in an explosion of mine and Granger’s cauldron.”</p><p>Potter took a deep breath in, letting it out in a low whistle. “That was fourteen years ago.”</p><p>“I’m still not sure this isn’t a dream indued from the accident.” Draco said.</p><p>“It’s not a dream.” Potter shook his head. “I remember when that day happened. You and Hermione were taken to the hospital wing. Hermione was conscious, but you weren’t. You woke up and hour later and both of you had to stay at the wing overnight for monitoring.”</p><p>Draco nodded his head slowly. “What happened after that?”</p><p>“Well, you were pretty quiet that night. Ron and I snuck into the hospital wing under the cloak to the stay with Hermione. We expected you to be a dick about it, but you just didn’t say a word. The next day, things were back too normal, like the accident hadn't happened at all.”</p><p>“And what was the potion that exploded? Did it have any possible adverse effects, like memory loss or <em>time travel?” </em>His voice was getting higher. More hysteric.</p><p>Potter shook his head. “No. Slughorn and Snape spent a week investigating the contents, before they concluded it was just a bad reaction to a larger newt spleen and extra toad eyeballs. Apparently, it’s nearly the same recipe as the twins’ exploding potion. There were no negative effects.”</p><p>“Then how do you explain the fact that I'm in my 30-year-old self’s body?”</p><p>Potter raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “I don’t know, the best person to ask would be Blaise, since he works in the department of mysteries. We can head there, now.”</p><p>Draco let out a sigh of relief at the thought of seeing a friendly face in this confusing world. “Let’s go. Will people think it’s weird that we’re together?” He prayed that was so. Then, maybe, all wouldn’t be wrong in his world.</p><p>“No.” Potter chuckled, “We’re partners in the field, usually, but I'm technically your boss.”</p><p>Draco groaned. “Whatever. Let’s go.”</p><p>As they left the office, Potter received an inter departmental memo informing him that the secretary to the Minster of Magic was at his office and wished to speak to him immediately. He rolled his eyes and said “We’ve gotta go see her first.” They took a left out of Draco’s office, and followed the hallway down. As he opened the door, Potter said “’How may I be of service, Madam Secretary?” he laughed at himself.</p><p>Inside the office, Hermione Granger turned quickly toward him and let out a breath. She ran into his arms and gave him a hug. “Oh, harry. I don’t know what’s happened!” She cried. “The last thing I remember is being in potions class, and an explosion. And then I woke up here! You’re older, and I'm older, but I'm not older!”</p><p>Draco watched, his mind racing. <em>It wasn’t just me? She’s here too? What happened? Who am I now? Who is she? What do I do? </em></p><p>“Oh, Harry, what do I do?”</p><p>Potter lifted his hands and patted her back. “Calm down, ‘Mione. First sit down.” She opened her eyes in the hug and they met with Draco’s, whom she had yet to notice standing behind Potter.</p><p>“Malfoy.” She breathed out.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. He's still sixteen too. You don’t have to pretend to love him around me. Now, let’s all sit down for a second, yeah?</p><p>The two of them nodded, Granger sniffled a bit, but composed herself as she sat next to Draco. They avoided looking at one another. He assumed she knew that here, in this time 14 years later, that they were married. It made him extremely uncomfortable.</p><p>“I’m going to write a memo to Blaise, and hopefully he can come up and we can reverse whatever this was and recover your memories.”</p><p>“Can’t you just-send us back to 1997?” Draco asked. He wanted to get out of here, away from these people. But he knew that this potter from 2011 was his only help to do so. He held back his bite.</p><p>Potter opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Granger, “That’s not how time travel usually works. You can't send someone back to themselves, because if you go back in time, then you are back in time and so is your past self. There are two of you.”</p><p>“What she said, basically.” Potter nodded, “It’s far more complicated than that. I think the best thing we can hope for, is a restoration of your present selves.” He composed a memo to Blaise and sent it off. They waited in a thick silence for a few moments.</p><p>“So.” Potter said, tapping his fingers on the desk. “I’m not really sure how to treat you, since you’re both children.” He laughed.</p><p>“I’m not a child.” Draco and Granger said at the same time, both turning to glare at one another.</p><p>“This is your fault, Granger. You’re the one that messed up the potion.”</p><p>“I did not!” She snapped back. “If anything, <em>you’re </em>the one who wasn’t stirring properly!”</p><p>Potter laughed loudly. “I suppose some things don’t change, even as you age.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Draco snapped.</p><p>“You’ve been married for eight years now, and you still bicker just like that, just like you’re still kids.”</p><p>“I’m not a kid.” Draco spat out, again.</p><p>“I’m not married to <em>him.”</em> Hermione scoffed.</p><p>“Whatever you say.” Potter laughed lightly to himself. “Nevertheless, you can be yourselves around me, and soon Blaise, but it’s best if you two keep the secret. We don’t want this to become public, as it could be very dangerous and leave the Ministry vulnerable.” He said very seriously. His voice had lowered to a slightly commanding tone, though it was not rude.</p><p>Hermione and Draco both grumbled but nodded their heads. Though the last harry Potter they had seen had been a gangly and awkward classmate, this Harry Potter was broad, and his demeanor demanded respect. He was very clearly an authority figure. It was intimidating, though he himself was not. Both Hermione and Draco were scared to act out in front of him.</p><p>“Do you two want to do anything while we wait?”</p><p>“Like what?” Draco snapped.</p><p>“Hmm,” He touched a finger to his chin in thought, “We could play exploding snap?” Potter suggested with a bright smile, immediately losing the intimidating edge.</p>
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